Category Archives: events

GOLKK Theatre to perform in Pisa

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GOLKK Theatre, one of the Graduate Theatre Companies sponsored by the School of Arts, will be performing their show ‘Peeking in the Portrait’ at the Festival of Academic Theatre (FAcT), held in Pisa, Italy this week 12-14 June 2019.

The festival is organised by the Scuola Normale Superiore, a university based in Pisa and Florence. It provides the opportunity for five university theatre groups to perform Pisa. GOLKK have received additional funding by the School of Arts at Kent.

‘Peeking in the Portrait’ creates a world where four people and a camera have no limitation to where they will end up. The work is inspired by the life and works of Lady Clementina Hawarden, one of Britain’s first female photographers. The show, developed by GOLKK on the MA in Physical Acting, explores what it means to exist in a world where we are simultaneously witnesses and the witnessed.

The show will be performed at 9pm (CET) on 14 June at the Teatro Lumiere.

Call for contributions for ‘Inside Out’ symposium

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Contributions are sought for a two day symposium as part of the Playing A/Part research project, led by Nicola Shaughnessy, Professor of Performance in the Department of Drama and Theatre, and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, to be held at Kent on Thursday 4 and Friday 5 July 2019.

The symposium is titled ‘Inside Out: Autistic Identities, Participatory Research and Gender’. The first day will explore perspectives on participatory research practices, ethics and themes, and the second day will explore perspectives on gender and creativity.

Contributions are invited in the form of posters or creative artefacts from projects that engage with the symposium themes, issues and questions. These might include:

Creative practices with autistic participants

  • Participatory research, neurodiversity and inclusive practices
  • Ethical issues in participatory autism research
  • Creative research methodologies and neurodiversity
  • Gender, sexuality and neurodiversity
  • Monotropism and related concepts
  • Interdisciplinary and inclusive research outcomes.

If you wish to contribute provide a 150 word abstract outlining the rationale, content and form of the work to be featured (whether a poster or creative artefact). Please send to playingapartconference@kent.ac.uk with the subject line ‘Inside Out Proposal’. Please note the preferred language for this event is identity first (i.e. autistic person/s).

The cost of the conference will be £25 per day or £40 for both days, with fee waivers available on request.

The deadline for proposals in Friday 24 May 2019.

Booking open for the Gothic Feminism conference 2019

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The Department of Film and the Histories: Art, Drama and Film Research Cluster are delighted to be organising a conference on ‘Technology, Women and Gothic-Horror On-Screen’, to be held at the University of Kent’s Canterbury campus on Thursday 2 May to Friday 3 May 2019.

The conference has been organised by Dr Frances Kamm, Assistant Lecturer in Film and Media,  and Dr Tamar Jeffers McDonald, Reader in Film.

Gothic Feminism is a research project based at Kent which seeks to re-engage with theories of the Gothic and reflect specifically upon the depiction of the Gothic heroine in film. The project raises questions of representation, interpretation and feminist enquiry in relation to the Gothic heroine throughout film history including present day incarnations. This project illuminates the concerns, contradictions and challenges posed by the Gothic heroine on-screen.

This year’s two day conference will consider the theme of technology in the woman-in-jeopardy strand of the Gothic and Gothic-horror film or television. The keynote speaker shall be Dr Lisa Purse (University of Reading), and topics include ‘Gothic Melodrama and Technicolour Design’; ‘Paranormal Investigations and their Implications for the Feminine Victorian Gothic’; Being a Man, Being a Woman and Being a Monster in Resident Evil: Biohazard’ and ‘Gaze, Gender, and Gothically Haunted Humanoid Inventions’. For the full programme, please see the page here: https://gothicfeminism.com/conference-programme-2019/

Tickets cost £50 waged / £25 unwaged / £5 for Kent students. Registration is open until Monday 22 April 2019; to register for the event, please visit the page here: https://store.kent.ac.uk/product-catalogue/faculty-of-humanities/school-of-arts/arts-events/gothic-feminism-2019

Canterbury University Film Festival 2019

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The 2019 Canterbury University Film Festival (CUFF) will be held this weekend; 23 and 24 March 2019.

CUFF is an independent festival that provides an opportunity for students from all three universities in Canterbury – the University of Kent, Canterbury Christ Church University and the University for the Creative Arts – to come together through their love of filmmaking. The festival will see a series of short films screened at the Curzon Cinema in Canterbury on the Sunday.

Students and alumni from the Department of Film in the School of Arts who are featuring in this year’s selection include Harry Nott, who graduated with an MA in Film with Practice in 2017; Bruce Parleton, who graduated with an MA in Film with Practice in 2018; Alexander Vanegus Sus, Nimasu Namsaren and Lorenzo Gianni, who are currently studying for the BA (Hons) in Film; Henry Davies, who graduated with his BA (Hons) in Film in 2015; and Daisy Reece who graduated with her BA (Hons) in Film with a Year Abroad in 2017.

On Saturday, there will be a panel discussing the process of developing from student to professional filmmaker at Waterstones Rose Lane in Canterbury at 6pm.

On Sunday, the screenings of student/alumni films at the Curzon will begin at 10am and will run until 1pm. The event is free to attend. For more details, please see the page here:
www.facebook.com/events/2308240219420927/

Furthermore, on the Sunday evening, there will be panel discussion following the 7pm showing of If Beale Street Could Talk at the Gulbenkian cinema on campus.

To find out more about the Canterbury Film Festival, including details on the individual films to be shown, please see the Facebook page here: www.facebook.com/cufffilmfestival

In conversation with TV producer Daisy Lilley

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The School of Arts will host a talk and Q&A session with television producer Daisy Lilley, entitled ‘Constructing Reality: In Conversation with Daisy Lilley’, on Tuesday 19 March 2019, 1pm-3pm, in the Aphra Theatre.

Daisy Lilley is a creative producer with vast experience across factual and entertainment TV production – both prime time and daytime. Some of her projects include Love Island, Come Dine with Me, and I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!

Daisy is also the co-creator and executive producer of the social media-based reality series The Circle, launched in September 2018, which follows a group of contestants who are only able to interact with each other via a specially designed voice-activated social media platform. The contestants must use the platform to become the highest rated participant in order to win the £50,000 prize.

The Circle will be returning to Channel 4 for a second series later this year, and has also been snapped up by streaming service Netflix, who plan to make the French, Brazilian and U.S. adaptations of the programme.

This Q&A will examine Daisy’s process of fusing old and new forms of media to create, develop and deliver some of the most addictive content on contemporary factual entertainment.  Daisy’s work fuses traditional television and digital culture forms making viewing practices multimedia experiences.

The event has been organised by Dr Kaitlyn Regehr, Lecturer in Media Studies, who said: ‘This is a great opportunity to meet an industry professional working on the cutting edge of traditional and new media forms. Daisy’s work is troubling contemporary streaming practices, such as Netflix, as she puts audience interactivity and multimedia experiences at the forefront. Come and learn about the future of TV viewing and tweet out your questions to @UniKentArts‘.

The event is free to attend and open to all. For full details, please see the page here: www.kent.ac.uk/arts/newsandevents/calendar.html?eid=37135

 

Artist Heath Bunting at Kent

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The School of Arts, in partnership with Studio 3 Gallery, Kent Law School, and the Centre for Critical Thought, has organised two collaborative events with artist Heath Bunting, to be held on Friday 15 March 2019.

The events consist of a seminar for students and staff at 11am in Cornwallis North West Seminar Room 6, and a talk which is open to the public at 4pm in the Studio 3 Gallery.

This joint venture was initiated by Mihaela Varzari, an independent curator currently undertaking a PhD in History and Philosophy of Art, and Dr Connal Parsley, Senior Lecturer in Law and Deputy Director of Kent’s Centre for Critical Thought. Each presentation will be followed by discussion with the organisers, chaired by Dr Michael Newall, Senior Lecturer in History and Philosophy of Art.

Heath Bunting’s international artistic career, spanning over 30 years, has roots in local political and social activism in Bristol with a strong focus on anarchism. The emergence of the internet in the mid 90’s in UK, perceived by Bunting as a social revolution, allowed him to immediately embrace it as an artistic medium, as well as a tool for social change. Street art, sports, permaculture, information sharing via networks, or forest trips, to mention only a few, become artistic ways of representation. Considered a pioneer of net.art, Bunting’s work is also associated with the second wave of institutional critique, known for challenging via networks and exhibitions available only on-line, the hyper commodification of art markets in the West. As politics and the nature of the internet have changed, so does Bunting’s questions and interests. His strong interest in recent legislation, commerce and systems of control, as seen in Status Project (2008), renders his work difficult to categorise, but nevertheless richly informative for students of history of art and law.

If you wish to attend the seminar on Friday, please RSVP to Connal Parsley at C.Parsley@kent.ac.uk

Please book your free ticket for the talk at 4pm on Facebook: www.facebook.com/events/332030800780016/ or Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/artist-talk-heath-bunting-tickets-58332302487

Turner Prize curator Rowan Geddis to visit Kent

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The Department of Art History is delighted to announce that Rowan Geddis, curator of the Turner Prize 2019, will be visiting the School of Arts next week to deliver a talk for the Humanities of Hire programme, on Thursday 28 February 2019.

Hums for Hire is an annual employability series hosted by the Faculty of Humanities to showcase the variety of career opportunities available to students studying Humanities subjects.

Rowan is a leading international curator, producer and arts programmer and will be exploring the dynamics of the art world. He has spent the last 12 years working as a curator, producer and programmer, supporting and developing art projects on three continents. These have included the founding and running of numerous project spaces, directing Gasworks (London), prestigious International Residencies Programme, and more recently producing and curating a series of projects staged in collaboration with institutions such as Tensta Konsthall and Index – Contemporary Art Foundation (both Sweden), Tokyo Wonder Site (Japan), Kiosko (Bolivia), and La Ira de Dios (Argentina).

Last year he was the curator of Young London 2018 – a large-scale survey show of 19 emerging artists, spanning 5 months of activity across multiple sites. He is currently curator at the Turner Contemporary in Margate, where he will be overseeing one of the best known prizes for visual arts in the world, alongside a related programme of activity and artist commissions.

His talk will be at 6.15pm to 7.15pm in Jarman Studio 2, followed by a drinks reception.

For all Hums for Hires events, please see the page here:
www.kent.ac.uk/ces/humsforhire.html

Helen Brooks in conversation with Andrew Gordon-Watkins

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The School of Arts is delighted to present Behind the Scenes: In Conversation with Andrew Gordon-Watkins on Thursday 7 February 2019 at 4pm in the Aphra Theatre.

Andrew Gordon-Watkins has worked in musical theatre for over 15 years and is currently touring with Saturday Night Fever. Andrew’s career began with a Drama degree at the University of Exeter, after which he trained at Central School of Speech and Drama. Since then he has worked in London’s West End theatre district, where he was in Young Frankenstein at the Garrick Theatre in 2018, as well as internationally. Andrew’s musical credits include Kiss Me Kate, The Producers, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, La Cage Aux Folles, Legally Blonde, We Will Rock You, Evita, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Houdini the Musical, Treasure Island and the Pirates of the Caribbean, Hello Dolly, Annie, The Wild Party, Fax of Life, and Marilyn the Musical.

Andrew will be talking with Dr Helen Brooks, Reader in Theatre and Cultural History in the School of Arts, about his love of musical theatre, the development of his career, and the highs and lows of working in the industry.

The event is free to attend, and is a must for anyone interested in musical theatre, or with an interest in working in theatre and the creative arts.

For more details, please see the events page:
www.kent.ac.uk/arts/newsandevents/calendar.html?eid=36757

To register for a free ticket, please follow this link: https://bit.ly/2CDuGjW

Lemn Sissy MBE to give Inspirational Speaker talk

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The School of Arts, in collaboration with Kent Law School and the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, are delighted to announce that international poet and writer Lemn Sissay MBE will be giving a talk about his journey to success as part of the Inspirational Speaker Series on Thursday 24 January 2019, 5-7pm.

The Student Success Project Inspirational Speaker Programme is designed to engage students (and staff), by showing inspirational achievers who model success in their sphere. Speakers explain their tips for success and how to overcome adversity and achieve one’s full potential.

Lemn Sissay will talk about his early experience in the social care system, to becoming a successful poet, on to becoming Chancellor of the University of Manchester. He will reflect on diversity in the arts, the social policies that support the care system and how he is using the law to challenge Wigan local authority for its part in surrendering him to an unwanted long term foster placement.

The talk will be held in Grimond Lecture Theatre 1.

All students and staff, from across the university, are warmly invited to attend. To register for a free ticket, please see the page here: https://inspirationalspeakerlemnsissay.eventbrite.co.uk

Helen Brooks interviewed on BBC Radio Kent

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Dr Helen Brooks, Reader in Theatre and Cultural History in the School of Arts, was interviewed for BBC Radio Kent this week, on the Dominic King Show broadcast on Monday 7 January 2019.

Helen was interviewed about a guided research workshop ‘A Night in the West End’, which will take place on Friday 11 January, to explore the role that London’s West End theatre district played during the First World War.

‘The idea is to bring academics and members of the public who have an interest in the subject together, to see what they can find out using newspapers and old periodicals to discover nuggets of history that have been long forgotten,’ explains Helen in the interview.

Helen is co-investigator on Gateways to the First World War: an AHRC-funded consortium for public engagement with the centenary of the conflict.

The broadcast is available on the BBC site and can be heard approximately 1 hour 22 minutes into the programme: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06vl17t

The workshop is free and open to all: to book a place, please see the Eventbrite link here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/night-in-the-west-end-guided-research-day-tickets-52660527054